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Departments

Our goal is to understand the principles of Perception, Action and Learning in autonomous systems that successfully interact with complex environments and to use this understanding to design future systems. The Institute studies these principles in biological, computational, hybrid, and material systems ranging from nano to macro scales.We take a highly interdisciplinary approach that combines mathematics, computation, material science, and biology.

The MPI for Intelligent Systems has campuses in Stuttgart and Tübingen. Our Stuttgart campus has world-leading expertise in small-scale intelligent systems that leverage novel material science and biology. The Tübingen campus focuses on how intelligent systems process information to perceive, act and learn.

The Tübingen Campus for Intelligent Systems consists of the following departments:

Autonomous Motion

(Stefan Schaal)

The Autonomous Motion Department has its focus on research in intelligent systems that can move, perceive, and learn from experiences. We are interested in understanding, how autonomous movement systems can bootstrap themselves into competent behavior by starting from a relatively simple set of algorithms and pre-structuring, and then learning from interacting with the environment. Using instructions from a teacher to get started can add useful prior information. Performing trial and error learning to improve movement skills and perceptual skills is another domain of our research. We are interested in investigating such perception-action-learning loops in biological systems and robotic systems, which can range in scale from nano systems (cells, nano-robots) to macro systems (humans, and humanoid robots).

Empirical Inference

(Bernhard Schölkopf)

The problems studied in the department can be subsumed under the heading of empirical inference. This term refers to inference performed on the basis of empirical data. The type of inference can vary, including for instance inductive learning (estimation of models such as functional dependencies that generalize to novel data sampled from the same underlying distribution), or the inference of causal structures from statistical data (leading to models that provide insight into the underlying mechanisms, and make predictions about the effect of interventions). Likewise, the type of empirical data can vary, ranging from sparse experimental measurements (e. g., microarray data) to visual patterns. Our department is conducting theoretical, algorithmic, and experimental studies to try and understand the problem of empirical inference.

Perceiving Systems

(Michael Black)

How do we see? We seek mathematical and computational models that formalize the principles of perception. Can we make computers that see? We combine insights from neuroscience with statistical models, machine learning, and computer graphics to derive new computer vision algorithms that, one day, may enable computers to understand the visual world of surfaces, materials, light and movement

Research Groups

Machine Learning and Computational Biology

(Karsten Borgwardt )

Scientific Facilities

In addition to the departments we are building shared central scientific facilities and workshops:

Scientific Computing

Scientific Computing Facility builds and maintains the computing and storage infrastructure for the research in the institute. It includes X86 cluster, GPU cluster, and storage servers. Apart from supporting the day-to-day computing needs of the researchers, we love to collaborate with them to develop scalable applications, and parallelize and/or optimize algorithms and applications. We also conduct independent research on scalable computing aspects of Intelligent Systems.

Software Workshop

The Software Workshop is a unique central scientific facility that brings together scientists and software engineers to translate basic research into software systems that can be used internally and deployed. Our goal is to increase the impact of research in Intelligent Systems by deploying robust software systems that are widely used.

Optics and Sensing Laboratory

The Optics and Sensing Laboratory supports research and development of new algorithms for image processing, enhancement and denoising, the integration of sensing systems of different types (stereo, video, range, etc.), new sensors and algorithms for computational photography and astronomy, and the development of real-time sensing systems for robotic platforms.

Welcome Service

Making Tübingen your home and not just your work place as quickly as possible is the aim of the Welcome Service. The Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems wants to welcome you by assisting you in settling in Tübingen, Germany. You are becoming not just part of an institute but of a community.

Here we try to answer general question on all topics that concern everyone who comes to Tübingen: directions, bus lines, dealing with authorities (visa, residence permit, etc.), house hunting, and becoming a PhD student.

Contact us at anytime about anything related to the Welcome Service and we will get back to you as soon as possible:

General Information

Please notice the different deadlines!! All of the procedures mentioned above have to be completed before your visa expires. Some of them have to be completed in order for you to get paid by the MPI IS.

Even if you do not speak German, you might want to give German websites a try. There is a list of abbreviations commonly used in German real estate ads translated into English available - Please contact Sabrina Jung for this list!

Registration Information

This is a rough overview of what you have to do once you arrive in Germany and in Tübingen:

1. Registration with the City of Tuebingen:

If you move to a German city, you have one week to register your new address with the city. In Tübingen, this is done in the "Bürgerbüro".

You can either go there yourself (the employees speak English and will assist you in filling in the form) or you can use the MP IS's service and fill in and sign the form with me and I will take the form and your passport to the registration office for you. If you choose to go by yourself, please remember to bring your passport!

You also need to reregister when you move within Tübingen and deregister when you leave Germany for good at the "Bürgerbüro".

There are two reasons for applying for a residence permit at the Foreigner’s Authorities (located within the "Bürgerbüro"):

If you came to Germany without a visa and you are not a citizen of a fellow EU member state (this does not apply to you, if you are staying less than 3 months or you are from Romania or Bulgaria);

If your visa expires before your contract with the MPI ends, you need to apply for a residence permit before your visa expires

It is important that you do not miss any deadline or expiration dates in this context!

Documents needed for applying:

Confirmation of your work at the MP IS (e.g. work contract), including the heigth of your income

Confirmation of health insurance

Passport

1xbiometric passport picture

"Old" (expiring) visa (if you have one)

You can either go there yourself (the employees speak English and will assist you in filling in the form) or you can use the MP IS’s service and fill in and sign the form with me. Since your fingerprints will be taken, I cannot go there for you but I will always be happy to accompany you.

If you have anymore questions or need help, please feel free to contact Sabrina Jung

Directions

Jobs

The Max-Planck-Society is one of the world's premier places to conduct visionary, high-risk, long term, and fundamental research. The Max-Planck-Institute for Intelligent System is always looking for new talents, from Ph.D. students to research scientists to junior professor levels.
What we care about is a strong commitment to top-notch academic research. We are interested in people who like to gain international experience, are strongly self-motivated, can integrate into a team, and who can drive creative and new ideas. Our MPI can offer unparalleled academic freedom, opportunity to work with the best equipment in the world, and to gain ample experience in international conferences and collaborations.

Institute Specific Jobs

Nominations sought for the position of Director at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems

The MPI for Intelligent Systems is in the process of identifying candidates for a new Director. Our institute seeks to understand the principles of perception, action and learning in autonomous systems that successfully interact with complex environments and to use this understanding to design future systems. The institute studies these principles in biological, computational, hybrid, and material systems ranging from nano to macro scales. We take a highly interdisciplinary approach that combines mathematics, computation, material science, and biology.

Our institute is located in two sites, Stuttgart and Tübingen, that are about 30 minutes apart in a beautiful and vibrant area of southern Germany.

Nominees must have a record of innovative research at the highest international level, and will have demonstrated the potential to inspire and lead a substantial group of scientists. Their scientific interests should be consistent with the institute's goals but candidates in all areas of intelligent systems may be considered. Max Planck is unique in that Directors receive substantial funding that enables them to pursue a bold scientific agenda for decades without the need to raise funding. Exceptionally promising mid-career scientists, who could benefit from such funding, will be considered.

Written nominations will be treated in strictest confidence, and must include a short description of the nominee's background and most significant scientific accomplishments. Self-nominations are not considered.

You will join a team that will take part in building a central scientific facility as part of "Optics and Sensing Laboratory". You will work closely with researchers across the institute's departments and research groups to investigate, develop and implement technologies in the above fields. 50% of your time is devoted to basic research, involving other scientists and PhD students. You will also be involved in the development of institute infrastructure e.g. e-Learning system, providing system instructions and guidance for students, testing new promising technologies ...

Department Specific Jobs

Perceiving Systems

Empirical Inference

Numerical algorithms—methods for integration, linear algebra, nonlinear optimization, or the solution of differential equations—form the computational foundation for quantitative science and engineering. They have been developed over centuries, by people for whom science, mathematics and computation were and still are the same field. Now, machine learning and modern statistics offer new ways of thinking about these tasks ...

Tiny Motions Bring Digital Doubles to Life

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems unveil new technology for motion and shape capture (MoSh) that helps animators jump the “Uncanny Valley” by turning a few moving dots into detailed body shapes that jiggle and deform like real humans.

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Tübingen, Germany, announced today that their Motion and Shape Capture (MoSh) study, which appeared in the journal ACM Transactions on Graphics, will be presented at SIGGRAPH Asia in Shenzhen on December 6, 2014. Devised by a team of researchers under the direction of Dr. Michael J. Black, Director of the Perceiving Systems department, MoSh is a method that allows animators to record the three-dimensional (3D) motion and shape of a real human and digitally “retarget” it to a new body shape. With MoSh, realistic virtual humans can populate games, the Internet, and virtual reality, while reducing animation costs for the special effects industry.

Klaus Tschira Award 2014 for Science Communication in the field of Computer Science

Tübingen / Heidelberg, October 9, 2014. Science in clear words: Dr. Sebastian Trimpe, a research scientist in the “Autonomous Motion Department" (Stefan Schaal) at the Tübingen Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, has written a short, comprehensible text (in German) that describes the research he conducted during his PhD at ETH Zurich. As winner in the category of computer science, he is one of six awardees who received the Klaus Tschira Award for achievements in public understanding of science on Thursday, October 9, 2014 in Heidelberg.

Royal Society Milner Award for Bernhard Schölkopf

The Royal Society (London, UK) just announced that Bernhard Schölkopf will receive the 2014 Milner award "for being a pioneer in machine learning whose work defined the field of 'kernel machines' which are widely used in all areas of science and industry." Bernhard Schölkopf is Director of the department „Empirical Inference“ at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems.

Machine learning attempts to extract regularities from observational data in order to generalize to new observations. To do this, one needs to be able to compare past and future data. Schölkopf has shown how to elegantly do this using so-called kernel functions for a large family of geometric algorithms. This leads to a successful class of learning algorithms that are used throughout science and engineering.

The Milner award is given annually for outstanding achievement in computer science by a European researcher, chosen by the Council of the Royal Society on the recommendation of the Milner Award Committee. The Committee is made up of Fellows of the Royal Society, Members of the Académie des sciences (France) and Members of Leopoldina (Germany). The winner of the award receives a medal and a personal prize of £5,000 and is invited to deliver a public lecture on their research at the Royal Society.

Research Network: Learning Systems

MPI for Intelligent Systems and ETH Zurich (Dept. of Computer Science) have united to become the world’s principal center for autonomous intelligent systems, 'Learning Systems'.

To foster research efforts, especially among graduates, workshops and conferences will take place and both institutions provide ample access to research facilities. The first summer school for PhD students took place from June 16-20, 2014, at ETH Zurich.

Apollo likes girls... - girls like robots!

During this year´s Girls Day on March 27, fifteen girls visited the humanoid robot "Apollo" in the Autonomous Motion Department. Furthermore they spent a while in the Empirical Inference Department learning about Computational Imaging.

The girls also had a lot of fun programming the two little Nao robots. Furthermore they even managed the challenge to construct a simple lens system.

Thanks to our colleagues Jeannette, Felix, Michael, Julia, Andrea and Claudia who allowed Girls Day to be a special day at the institute. Hopefully it will motivate some of the girls to orientate themselves towards nature sciences and technology.

The Max-Planck-Institute for Intelligent Systems in Tuebingen is looking for a student research assistant/HiWi (studentische/wissenschaftliche Hilfskraft) for the development of an automated video and audio post-processing system by making use of computer-vision and machine-learning methods.

Recording and post-processing of invited talks and lectures currently take substantial effort and manual labor for arguably modest results.
Current set-ups require manual editing and synchronization of multiple signal sources or offer poor quality if all signals are captured with a single device. Often, the video appears too static and questions from the audience are barely audible.

The Institute has started Project Livius which aims at finding a recording set-up and process to ease post-processing and maximize the viewing pleasure. Your task would be to support the project group in setting up experiments, helping post-processing the gathered material, and implementing and evaluating new methods for the automation of this process. To this end, you will work with state-of-the-art hardware and DSP algorithms.

What we are looking for
Applicants must be matriculated students with a conversational knowledge of English. Additionally, applicants need a strong background in math and good programming skills. Prior knowledge in machine learning or signal processing is helpful, but not required. Prior experience with multi-media editing is beneficial. The ideal candidate also has a high intrinsic motivation in digital video or audio processing.

What we offer
The position comprises 40h per month. The payment is based on Max-Planck Society guidelines. Students holding a Bachelor's degree will be paid at 10.81 Euro per hour, students without a Bachelor's degree at 9.29 Euro per hour, plus a holiday dispensation at the end of the year. Appointments will be for one semester initially, but can be extended.

The MPI for Intelligent Systems is one of the world's leading research institutions for machine learning, computer vision and robotics, studying the concepts of intelligence and autonomy on every conceptual scale. We offer an interdisciplinary, open research environment among international staff, with connections to institutions within and outside of Germany. The post is ideally suited for students looking to extend their scientific and cultural horizons.

The Max Planck Society is committed to increasing the number of individuals with disabilities in its workforce and therefore encourages applications from such qualified individuals.
The Max Planck Society seeks to increase the number of women in those areas where they are underrepresented and therefore explicitly encourages women to apply.

Contact
Applications and inquiries should be sent quoting reference number 61.14, accompanied by a CV and a short statement of motivation (max. 300 words) to:

Scientist or Research Engineer for Central Scientific Facility

We study intelligent systems, focusing on what computations allow synthetic and natural intelligent systems to do in perception, action, and learning. Our site in Tübingen, Germany is part of a campus with three Max Planck institutes and scientists from around the world. Three research departments collaborate on topics in machine learning, perception, and robotics to understand intelligent systems. Such systems rely on light to obtain information from the world.

Your responsibilities:
You will join a team that will take part in building a central scientific facility as part of "Optics and Sensing Laboratory". You will work closely with researchers across the institute's departments and research groups to investigate, develop and implement technologies in the above fields. 50% of your time is devoted to basic research, involving other scientists and PhD students. You will also be involved in the development of institute infrastructure e.g. e-Learning system, providing system instructions and guidance for students, testing new promising technologies.

Requirements:

PhD or extensive experience in physics, engineering, or computer science

Comprehensive hands-on experience with optical experimentation, optical design and system implementation, telescopes and astronomical camera systems plus an open mind to get involved in other areas that the central scientific facility will work on, including: low level processing and acquisition in computer vision systems, camera synchronization and calibration, multi-camera capture, motion capture systems, scanners, stereo imaging.

In-depth knowledge of an optical design software like Zemax, OSLO, or CodeV.

Strong project management skills.

Experience of work in research teams, preferably multi-disciplinary teams.

Proficient communication skills.

German language skills are not required, but a plus. Good written/spoken English is mandatory.

A desire to get your hands dirty, and an affinity to computers and systems.

A desire to create the future.

Our offer:
Salaries will be based on previous experience according to TVöD guidelines (E9 to E15). An initial contract will be offered for 2 years but subsequent tenure is possible. This is a full-time position. The Max Planck Society is committed to employing more handicapped individuals and especially encourages them to apply. The Max Planck Society seeks to increase the number of women in areas where they are underrepresented and therefore explicitly encourages women to apply. The position will be open until filled or no longer needed. Preference will be given to applications received by 31 January, 2015.

Applications that do not follow the instructions will not be accepted.

Contact: Candidates should send their application quoting the reference number 57.14. in English via e-mail to Ms. Ballmann at personal@vw.mpi-stuttgart.mpg.de. The application should include 4 PDF documents: 1) your CV, 2) publication list, 3) certificates and references, 4) a 2-page of motivation, relevant previous experience, and statement of research interests. A Microsoft Word template can be downloaded from here, which can also be edited by free libre office (http://www.libreoffice.org). Please carefully read and follow the instructions on how to fill in the form.

If you prefer to send a hardcopy application, you may do so. Please address it to:

PhD or PostDoc position in Brainstem and Spinal Cord MRI at 3T and 9.4T

The High-Field MR Center (MRC) at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics (Dr. Anke Henning, Prof. Klaus Scheffler) and the Autonomous Motion Department at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems (Prof. Dr. Stefan Schaal) in Tübingen / Germany, in collaboration with Dr. Dagmar Sternad, Northeastern University, Boston, US, invite applications for a PhD or postdoc position in methods development for brainstem and spinal cord structural and functional MRI at 3T and 9.4T.

The research goal is the development and optimization of advanced MRI technology to enable high-resolution structural and functional MRI in the brain stem and spinal cord. To that methods such as reduced field of view excitation by parallel transmit RF pulses, advanced B0 shimming, real-time field stabilization and motion correction methods shall be combined and applied to neuroscientific questions with regard to motion control.

Applicants for this position should have an electrical or biomedical engineering, physics or computational science background and for post doc candidates obtained their PhD in MRI or NMR methods development. They should be able to work independently, get acquainted with new methods and knowledge quickly, be able to work in a team with other postdoctoral fellows and PhD students and be willing to work with experimental hardware and perform validation studies in volunteers. An interest in neuroscientific questions in the area of motor control is also expected.

The position is available immediately and intended for 4 years as a PhD position and 2 years with prolongation options for the PostDoc position. Payment is according to the guidelines of the MPG and depends on experience. The Max Planck Society is an equal opportunity employer: women, people from minority groups and handicapped individuals are strongly encouraged to apply.

Applications should include a letter of motivation, a curriculum vitae, a list of publications (peer-reviewed original articles; review articles; book chapters; conference contributions; other), PhD and Master certificates (including a list of classes taken during Bachelor and Master studies); three references (contact details only) and a short summary of past research experience and future research interests.

Research Assistant / Hiwi Optics and Sensing Laboratory

The Max-Planck-Institute for Intelligent Systems in Tuebingen is looking for a student research assistant/HiWi (studentische/wissenschaftliche Hilfskraft) to assist with diverse tasks required in the set-up of a new laboratory and the design of new multi-sensor systems: from updating wiki-pages and documentation editing to testing the latest equipment and developing software for it.

The Optics and Sensing Laboratory supports research and development of new algorithms for image processing, enhancement and denoising, the integration of sensing systems of different types (stereo, video, range, etc.), new sensors and algorithms for computational photography and astronomy, and the development of real-time sensing systems for robotic platforms.

What we are looking for:
Applicants must be matriculated students with excellent conversational and writing skills in English. German proficiency is a plus. Applicants are required to have hands-on experience with electronics. A background in computer vision or computer graphics is a plus. Knowledge in programming (C++/Matlab/Python) is preferred. The ideal candidate has a strong passion for new technology, is a natural team player and has 40 hours of extra time a month.

What we offer:
In this position, you will be exposed to cutting-edge technologies related to computer vision and multi-sensor systems.

The position comprises 40 hours per month, with a flexible schedule. The payment is based on Max-Planck Society guidelines. Students holding a Bachelor's degree will be paid at 10.81 Euro per hour, students without a Bachelor's degree at 9.29 Euro per hour, plus a holiday dispensation at the end of the year. Appointments will be for one year initially (probation period of 3 months) with possibilities of extension.

The MPI for Intelligent Systems is one of the world's leading research institutions for machine learning, computer vision and robotics, studying the concepts of intelligence and autonomy on every conceptual scale. We offer an interdisciplinary, open research environment among international staff, with connections to institutions within and outside of Germany. The post is ideally suited for students looking to extend their scientific and cultural horizons.

The Max Planck Society is committed to increasing the number of individuals with disabilities in its workforce and therefore encourages applications from such qualified individuals. The Max Planck Society seeks to increase the number of women in those areas where they are underrepresented and therefore explicitly encourages women to apply.

Contact:
Applications and inquiries should be sent quoting reference number 63.14, accompanied by one page CV to:

Motion Capture and 4D Scanning Technical Supervisor

We are changing how 3D shape and motion are modelled and captured by developing new 4D capture systems and software. The role of the Motion Capture and 4D scanning Technical Supervisor is to manage all aspects of our evolving hardware and software systems. You will work directly with researchers on the development and use of these systems for capturing the 3D shape of the human body in motion.

4D: Traditional motion capture only measures sparse points on the body and animations using mocap tend to lack realism. 3D scanning produces detailed and realistic 3D shape but lacks motion. Our 4D solution captures detailed human shape in motion. The resulting 4D scans provide the foundation for basic research on 3D shape modeling and tracking and a new direction for realistic animation.

Our Institute: Join us at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Tübingen, Germany. We are a fast-growing center of research excellence in computer vision, robotics, and machine learning. Our research seeks to understand mathematical principles of intelligent systems. This involves analyzing and modeling, but also building such systems.

Your Role: The Perceiving Systems Department is already home to the most highly detailed 3D BodyScanner in the world, a groundbreaking 66 camera custom system. We are currently building a new custom 4D system to capture the human body in motion. It will provide unprecedented details about human shape and dynamics. We regularly capture thousands of scans with our current system and the 4D system will produce petabytes of data. You will work with a team of researchers, programmers and technicians to build, support, expand and use these systems for basic research on human body shape and motion.

Responsibilities:

Support the group's capture facilities, current and future.

Develop custom software for scan processing and analysis.

Plan and set up capture sessions and experiments.

Manage 4D shape and motion capture databases.

Be the go-to person for scanner calibration, configuration and integration.

Work with scientists and students on basic research, large-scale data capture, and novel applications.

Experience with the foundations of synchronization, camera calibration etc. is highly desirable.

Strong systems, scripting and programming skills.

Strong written/spoken English

Requirements: Advanced degree or hands-on experience in motion capture, computer vision, or graphics.
A desire to help shape the future of motion capture.
Experience with multi-camera capture systems, standard mocap systems, scanners, etc.
Experience with the foundations of synchronization, camera calibration etc. is highly desirable.
Like to get your hands dirty.
Strong systems, scripting and programming skills.
Strong written/spoken English

Salaries will be based on previous experience according to TVöD guidelines. This is a full-time position. An initial contract will be offered for 2 years. The Max Planck Society is committed to employing more handicapped individuals and especially encourages them to apply. The Max Planck Society seeks to increase the number of women in areas where they are underrepresented and therefore explicitly encourages women to apply.

The position will be open until filled or no longer needed.

Contact: Candidates should send their PDF application in English via e-mail to: ps-apply@tue.mpg.de

More information about the Tübingen site of our institute can be found at http://is.mpg.de/ps. Multiple positions are available and will be open until filled or no longer needed.
If you prefer to send a hardcopy application, you may do so. Please address it to:

PhD Scholarships in Geometric Statistics

Modern machine learning techniques are mostly incapable of handling nonlinear represen- tations and distance measures, which are at the heart of meaningful data modeling. This leads to problems in practical applications where the statistics stop being representative of the data. Consider the simple case of doing statistics on unit length vectors (e.g. SIFT features):

If we treat these vectors as Euclidean their average will, with probability one, not be a unit vector. The statistics is, thus, not consistent with the data and we have lost its meaning.

If we enforce the unit length constraint during statistics we need a new notion of distance as the shortest path between points is no longer the straight line.

If we insist on using a Euclidean model the results will have less significance as we ignored the dimensionality reduction provided by the constraint.

Now imagine more complex constrained data: mesh deformations should preserve outward pointing surface normals; object contours should be independent of parametrization; covariances should stay positive definite and so forth. In such scenarios the above problems becomes a significant hurdle to progress, and the solution is still missing.

Does that bother you? And do you want to help find solutions?

The Geometric Statistics research at the MPI for Intelligent Systems aims at solving these problems by modeling constrained feature spaces geometrically. Our work is both theoretical and applied, with
a particular focus on the problems occuring as part of the larger MPI effort to build the worlds best model of human body shape.

Talented students interested in other related research areas are also encouraged to apply.

You should have an excellent Master's degree in computer science, mathematics, or a related field with a focus on mathematical modeling and algorithmic development. You are determined to build the best possible models of the world, and you are not afraid to challenge the status quo. You have previous research experience (e.g. interships, research papers, etc.) and we expect that you know why you want to do a PhD with us.

We at the MPI for Intelligent Systems in Tübingen offer a friendly working environment in a lovely old town, situated in a hilly area south of Stuttgart, Germany, with a high quality of life. Max Planck Institutes are inter- nationally renowned and regarded as one of the worlds foremost organizations for fundamental research. This PhD position is open at the Perceiving Systems Department, headed by Prof. Michael Black and will be supervised jointly by Søren Hauberg and Michael Black. The working language is English. The Max Planck Society is an equal opportunity employer; women and people with disabilities are encouraged to apply.

To apply for this position, please send your application to ps-apply@tuebingen.mpg.de. You application must include your CV, university transcripts, academic records, references to (international) people who can talk about your research abilities and a research statement. Please include your thesis and, if available, your latest research papers. If you have any further questions about this position, please contact us.

PhD Scholarship in Computer Vision and Machine Learning

Visual Scene Understanding is one of the fundamental challenges in computer vision. While recent advances in object detection, semantic image segmentation and classification have spurred novel interest in the subject, most existing approaches work on single images only. At MPI for Intelligent Systems in Tübingen we are interested in lifting semantic image segmentation into 3D and reasoning about objects spatially and temporally using multi-view video sequences taken from a movable platform driving through a city. The goal of this project is to develop compact 3D scene representations and efficient inference methods based on probabilistic graphical models (e.g., High-Order Markov Random Fields) that reason about the scene geometry and assign semantic class labels to objects, such as 'tree', 'building' and 'car'. The evaluation will be performed on real-world sequences where ground truth is established from aerial images, map information and using crowdsourcing techniques. We are looking for a passionate student, interested in solving such high- level computer vision tasks with the help of statistical models.

Talented students interested in other related research areas are welcome to apply as well!

You should posess an excellent Master's degree in computer science (or a related field), with a focus on computer vision and machine learning. A solid mathematical background and very good programming (C++, Python, MATLAB) and computer (Linux, Windows) skills are required. You share our passion for teaching computers how to see and you have done some previous research in this field (e.g., internships, research papers, etc.). We expect that you know why you want to do a PhD with us.

We at the MPI for Intelligent Systems in Tuebingen offer a friendly working environment in a lovely old town, situated in a hilly area south of Stuttgart, Germany, with a high quality of life. Max Planck Institutes are internationally renowned and regarded as the foremost organisation for fundamental research in Germany. This PhD position is open at the Perceiving Systems Department in the MPI for Intelligent Systems, headed by Prof. Michael Black and will be supervised jointly by Andreas Geiger and Michael Black. The working language is English. Salary and benefits according to public service pay scale (TVöD) or stipend guidelines, respectively. The Max Planck Society is an equal opportunity employer; women and people with disabilities are encouraged to apply.

To apply for this position, please send your application to ps-apply@tuebingen.mpg.de. Your application must include your CV, university transcripts, academic records, references to (international) people who can talk about your research abilities and a research statement. Please also include your thesis and, if available, your latest research papers. If you have any further questions about this position, please contact us by mail:

Outstanding candidates in all areas of computer vision will be considered but special emphasis will be given to candidates with experience in modeling and estimating human and animal shape including 3D mesh models, statistical shape modeling, 3D vision, articulated pose estimation, and non-rigid models of clothing, hair and fur. While our focus is basic research, we also pursue commercial applications and applications in neuroscience.

The Institute studies perception, action and learning from molecules to machines and has research centers in Tübingen and Stuttgart. The Perceiving Systems Department is located in Tübingen together with the Empirical Inference Department of Prof. Bernhard Schölkopf, the robotics research of Prof. Stefan Schaal and the renowned MPI for Biological Cybernetics. The Max Planck Institutes in Tübingen represent an exceptional research environment in which scientists from a wide range of fields including computer vision, machine learning, robotics, neuroscience, and cognitive science collaborate. A full range of state-of-the-art equipment will be available, including novel 3D and 4D scanning systems, multi-camera video capture, and a large compute cluster.

Only candidates with a sustained history of significant publication in vision, graphics, and learning are encouraged to apply. A PhD in computer science or a related field is required. The working language is English and strong written and spoken English is necessary. Tübingen is a beautiful and lively medieval town with a large university population. Located in southern Germany, at the edge of the Swabian Jura, the surrounding country is characterized by rolling hills, forests, river valleys, historic towns, and extensive walking and biking trails. The quality of life is excellent.

The initial appointment will be for 2 years, in accordance with the German salary standards (TVöD), and is renewable. The target starting date is as soon as possible but is flexible.

The Max Planck Society is an equal opportunity employer; women and people with disabilities are encouraged to apply. Applications in English, including a statement of research experience and interests, a curriculum vita listing publications, and contact details of at least two referees, should be sent in PDF form to: Melanie Feldhofer, melanie.feldhofer@tuebingen.mpg.de.

More information about our institute can be found at http://is.mpg.de. Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis.

If you prefer to send a hardcopy application, you may do so. Please address it to Melanie Feldhofer at:

Engineer for Central Scientific Facility (Scientific Computing)

Intelligent Systems. Astounding Compute Power. We want to understand and build intelligent systems that can see, move, and learn. This is a huge computational challenge. Can you work with us to build a world-class state-of-the-art computing infrastructure so that our research is never limited by compute resources?

Our Institute:

Join us at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Tübingen, Germany. A fast growing centre of research excellence in the fields of computer vision, robotics, and machine learning. Our research seeks to understand the principles of intelligent systems by analyzing, modeling, and building intelligent systems.

Our Central Scientific Facility (ZWE) team designs, builds, and maintains the high-performance scientific computing and storage infrastructure for the institute. The ZWE also collaborates with researchers to develop scalable applications that often deal with large data.

Tübingen is a medieval university town, in an area of outstanding natural beauty in the Southwest of Germany, within easy reach of the Stuttgart international airport. The Institute, alongside two other Max Planck Institutes, is located on a campus overlooking the town. A new building is currently being constructed on site to provide state-of-the-art research facilities.

Your Role:

You will play a pivotal role in creating and managing both infrastructure and tools for scalable scientific computing on distributed architectures. Our researchers need to easily and reliably run large numbers of jobs in parallel, often chaining their output into additional jobs - mostly written in Python or Matlab and running on Linux/OS X. We currently have both CPU- and GPU-based clusters and are building a Petabyte-scale storage facility. Many of the applications are data intensive, requiring a large-scale storage infrastructure. You will be in charge of keeping the compute and storage infrastructure up and running to facilitate our research.

Our local compute cluster will grow with you and you will be purchasing and maintaining new hardware and software as we expand. Your colleagues are like-minded people who want to deliver the best computing facilities to the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems. You will be learning new things continuously and developing your technical skills further.

Responsibilities:

Design, procurement, and maintenance of large scale dynamic computing and storage cluster

System administration of high performance computing and storage cluster

Ensuring the highest possible level of availability, usability, and reliability of computing resources for the researchers

Measurement, management and reporting of research computing and storage usage across the institute

Ensuring regular backup of data and programs

Documentation and streamlining of compute job submission processes

Requirements:

Strong background in high-performance/scalable/cluster computing

Good understanding of high performance computing hardware

Experience in setting up and maintaining high performance computing hardware, storage and software (HPC system administration)

Good written and spoken English. Knowledge of German is useful but not necessary

Exposure to scientific programming, parallel programming, and GPU programming is a plus

Our Offer:

Salaries and contract will be based on previous experience according to TVöD guidelines. An initial contract will be offered for two years. This is a full-time position. The Max Planck Society is committed to employing more handicapped individuals and especially encourages them to apply. Furthermore the Max Planck Society seeks to increase the number of women in areas where they are underrepresented and therefore explicitly encourages women to apply.

Your Application:

Candidates should send their PDF application, quoting the reference number 35.13. in English via e-mail to Ms. Ballmann at:

More information about the Tübingen site of our institute can be found on www.is.tuebingen.mpg.de. The position will be open until filled or no longer needed. Preference will be given to applications received by September 30, 2013.

If you prefer to send a hardcopy application, you may do so. Please address it to:

Intelligent Systems. Astounding Compute Power. We want to understand and build intelligent systems that can see, move and learn. This is a huge computational challenge and a Big Data challenge. Can you work with us to build a world-class state-of-the-art computing infrastructure so that our research is never limited by compute resources?

Our Institute:

Join us at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Tübingen, Germany. A fast growing centre of research excellence in the fields of computer vision, robotics, and machine learning. Our research seeks to understand the principles of intelligent systems by analyzing, modeling and building intelligent systems.

Our Central Scientific Facility (ZWE) team designs, builds, and maintains the high-performance research computing and storage infrastructure for the institute. The ZWE also collaborates with researchers to develop scalable applications that often deal with large data. It is unique in the sense that members of the ZWE are free to spend approximately half their time doing research and the rest supporting other researchers in their computational requirements.

Tübingen is a medieval university town, in an area of outstanding natural beauty in the Southwest of Germany, within easy reach of the Stuttgart international airport. The Institute, alongside two other Max Planck Institutes, is located on a campus overlooking the town. A new building is currently being constructed on site to provide state-of-the-art research facilities.

Your Role:

You will design, build, and maintain our large-scale storage infrastructure and tools for data-intensive scientific computing. Our researchers want to solve important problems in machine learning, computational biology, computational photography, and computer vision using big data – large datasets of images, videos and genetic information. You will also be in charge of ensuring efficiency, scalability, and stability of the storage system.

Our “big data” infrastructure will grow with you and you will be purchasing and maintaining new hardware and software as we expand. Your colleagues are like-minded people who want to deliver the best computing facilities to the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems. You will be learning new things continuously and developing your technical skills further.

Responsibilities:

Design, build, and maintain large-scale storage infrastructure

Understand the role of big data in our research and keep our storage infrastructure and tool framework evolving

Closely work with researchers for storage capacity planning and technology evaluation

Support researchers and application developers in architecting data intensive applications

Conduct research on effective storage technologies and software frameworks for data-intensive computing

Measure, manage, and report storage usage across the institute

Ensure the highest possible level of availability, usability, reliability of storage resources for the researchers

Experience in data intensive programming frameworks such as MapReduce/Hadoop

Good written and spoken English. Knowledge of German is useful but not necessary

Exposure to scientific programming, parallel programming, and GPU programming is a plus

Our Offer:

Salaries and contract will be based on previous experience according to TVöD guidelines. An initial contract will be offered for two years. This is a full-time position. The Max Planck Society is committed to employing more handicapped individuals and especially encourages them to apply. Furthermore the Max Planck Society seeks to increase the number of women in areas where they are underrepresented and therefore explicitly encourages women to apply.

Your Application:

Candidates should send their PDF application, quoting the reference number 34.13. in English via e-mail to Ms. Ballmann at:

More information about the Tübingen site of our institute can be found on www.is.tuebingen.mpg.de. The position will be open until filled or no longer needed. Preference will be given to applications received by September 30, 2013.

If you prefer to send a hardcopy application, you may do so. Please address it to:

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